Fountaingrove residents wrestle with starting over

April 27--After the October wildfires destroyed their million-dollar Fountaingrove home, Larry and Carmen Kilcullen considered buying something else instead of rebuilding.

They thought about taking their insurance payout and going to another community. They also considered buying a smaller home somewhere else in Santa Rosa.

But the Kilcullens ultimately decided that they loved their Cross Creek Road neighborhood so much that they wanted to rebuild despite the daunting task they would face.

"We just said to ourselves 'Where else would we go?'" said Carmen Kilcullen, a retired educator. "We love it here."

The Kilcullens' decision to rebuild -- celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and a blessing earlier this month -- has brought a welcome sign of life to a neighborhood that, nearly eight months after the fires, has just 16 homes under construction.

Their decision also runs counter to the prevailing narrative that older residents are proving less inclined to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous rebuilding costs. The assumption has been that, with fewer years left to enjoy their homes and less interest in tackling daunting task of rebuilding, many older residents of Fountaingrove would put their lots up for sale and move on.

But the Kilcullens, who are in their early 80s, were undeterred by the prospect of rebuilding. They knew it would be difficult, and it has proven so. Wrangling the project to this point -- foundation work began last week and they hope to move in 10 months later -- has taken every bit of energy they and their daughter, Lauren Kilcullen, could muster.

And yet Carmen Kilcullen's a little irked by the number of her neighbors who seem to be "just sitting around" overwhelmed by it all.

"I don't know what they are waiting for, the sky to fall?" Kilcullen said.

A number of factors tipped the scales in favor of them rebuilding. Their insurance through State Farm was excellent, thanks in part to Kilcullen or her agent keeping the policy current. The man who built the home, Rod McCannell, agreed to rebuild it for them. As chairwoman of the architectural review committee of her homeowners association, Kilcullen for years has watched others build or remodel and felt something in her would enjoy the process.

As the first people to rebuild a home in her neighborhood, Kilcullen said they may seem like an anomaly, but she predicted the pace of rebuilding will pick up soon. Her committee, the Architectural Control Committee of Fountaingrove Ranch Master Association, has recently been approving projects at a faster rate, with 33 homes signed off on to date.

"We should be seeing a lot more homes going in this summer," she predicted.

Water hookups may be allowed

Recovery from the October wildfires, the most destructive and deadly in state history, has been steady, but the rebuilding effort -- particularly in Fountaingrove -- slow.

The fires took 40 lives and burned a total of 6,190 homes in the region, more than a third of them in the city of Santa Rosa. The resulting home insurance claims have exceeded $9 billion.

Of the 266 homes in Santa Rosa that have started the permitting process, 135 have been approved, with 75 of those under construction, according to city permit data. Just nine of those are in Fountaingrove.